I finally got that damn hill.

Been 4 days since I've been on the bike. Its not really a long time just seems that way. I was riding 3 times a week. Its been atleast 2 weeks since I'd been to Rosaryville so I made the return.

Decided once again to go the "hard" way , clockwise, and give that damn hill(the one at the infamous powerlines) another try. The plan was to outsmart it. Previous tries involved me ending up standing and washing out on the loose gravel. Tonights plan was to keep the butt on the seat and give my rear 29" wheel the traction it needed. I got a good running start at it , downshift, downshift, downshift, until I had too much tension on the drivetrain for another succesful shift. Not downshifting fast enough. But it didn't matter, I was in a low enough gear where I could go ahead and power up it with the head down over the bars and the butt planted on the saddle.

Once again. I am a man.

The glory was short lived though. On another hill that I clean everytime, I got skunked on. The drivetrains been acting funny. Whenever I'm in the middle chainring and in the biggest or next biggest in the rear and put alot of pressure on her, the chains likes to jump off of the chainrings. The SOB jumped off on the hill and almost made me endo.

I finally made it off the trail right at 8:00. Damn it was getting dark in the woods.

I went ahead and volunteered for the Shenandoah Mountain 100 race this labor day weekend. This was the race i was planning on doing this year until the knee got injured. Atleast by volunteering I can see what happens and be part of the action. I have to go through my stuff now and see if I've actually still got a tent. I haven't used it in 5 years, and haven't seen it since we moved to our current house 2-1/2 ago. I'm thinking about borrowing my parents mini van. All the seats come out and I could just sleep in that. I'll see.

Later